Opinion | It’s possible to unlock safe urban mobility during a lockdown

The critical question today is whether it is possible to permit mobility of workers from their residence to workplace to start production and distribution of commodities and services in select sectors after the three week long lockdown period. The primary concern behind this is not to protect the predicted fall in the growth in national income in the current year, at least not until the corona-infected persons’ curve starts flattening out. The critical concern for the next couple of months cannot be anything but saving human life. The threat to life comes from the pandemic entering the third phase with the possibility of the number of community infected persons going up to millions in India which has extremely inadequate health care services, both for testing and treatment, particularly in terms of coverage. The threat to life is equally serious for people not having enough purchasing power to buy food and other means of survival since only 15% of workforce has income/pension security and the inadequacy in the capacity of the state machinery to guarantee the minimum necessities to the remaining workforce is becoming evident, at the central, state and district level.

Massive awareness has been created with regard to the process, vulnerabilities, symptoms and precaution for the pandemic, highlighting the urgent need for social distancing. Also, plans have been made for improving the scope and coverage of the medical facilities to take care of the suspected and infected persons. Unfortunately, the lockdown prescription hasn’t had the benefit of any such detailed planning, resulting in most workplaces being locked up, workers thrown out or facing an imminent threat of unemployment and the migrants setting out for long journeys back home in crowded compartments, buses, trucks and even on foot without any consideration of personal health.

To add to the problems, “lockdown” is being understood differently at different levels of administration, general society and each individual. Notwithstanding the injunction of staying at home, a number of civil society groups, community groups and individuals have ventured, not always with adequate precautionary measures, to reach out to the poor, elderly, physically challenged and the quarantined people. Unfortunately, there has been no specification of a framework or guidelines for safe community participation, whereby much larger engagement of civil society could have been institutionalized. While essential services have been defined and exempted from lockdown provisions, unorganized workers that constitute the backbone of these services and those who must walk long distances to avail the sustenance items provided by the states, have not been included within their fold. The lockdown has led to an economic emergency.

Immediate, but calibrated resumption of production focused economic activity is necessary to arrest any irreversible change. Opening up of industries and businesses in several identified areas in the cities must be considered, allowing for gradual resumption of production. Commuting of workers can be operationalized during the period of partial lockdown through a system of electronic passes, enabling them to travel from their residence to workplace and return within specified period of the day (except those residing in or around the hotspots – red or orange zones).

For operationalization of the plan of safe commutation of workers, it would be important to ensure their personal safety as well as that of those involved in the transportation activity. Transit to and from workplaces can be organized by pre authorized buses or 4-wheeled vehicles for e-permit holding employees by the company itself between certain destinations. Companies will have to make a small payment to the state for each vehicle, (say ₹1,000 per month) to meet the additional cost of the supervision and management. Employees opting for commutation though self-driven cars can be provided e-permits through their companies on payment of certain fee (say ₹5,000 per month) to the state. Additionally, app based and regular taxi and auto-rickshaw services would be issued authorization to take the e-permit holders from their residences to places of work and back. Every trip would have to be logged into a purpose-built application on their mobile device, including the e-permit ID of the passenger. Vehicle operators would need to maintain hygiene inside their vehicles and log in disinfection activities after every trip. Being found away from the permitted travel route or beyond specified hours would be an offence. Allowing taxis and auto-rickshaws to operate under the permit scheme would enable a significant number of drivers to get back into their daily earnings.

For those without personal cars and unable to afford personalized transport, e-permits can be issued at a small cost (say ₹500 per month), through the employing companies, for whom bus services will be provided. These would be the workers below the threshold income. These permits would enable them to avail the benefits provided by public agencies during the pandemic period, right at the workplaces. The employers can pick up the benefits such as cooked food, weekly rations, etc., for this segment of workers, including the casual labour and those on short duration contract, and distribute at the places of work under the institutional supervision of public agencies and civil society. This would strengthen employer employee relationship which would be a positive factor for future growth of the company. Furthermore, this would encourage the migrants to stay back in the cities and motivate those who have left for their native places in panic, to return back, particularly after the harvesting season. As the workers of a company will stay together during the day under the standard safety norms implemented by the company, there will be limited community interaction, making monitoring of their health status easy and less expensive.

As the number of passengers will be low, it would not be difficult to ensure adequate distancing between passengers. Such buses would be disinfected prior to and in between their respective trips and run with windows open. These would take passengers holding e passes travelling between fixed points of origin and destination at normal fare, without compromising on permitted passenger density and distancing requirements. The fees collected from the workers for the e-permits would be used to compensate for the losses incurred by public transport system.

Drivers and other linked personnel in private taxis, auto rickshaws and buses cars would have to have the safety kits and observe hygienic and medical norms necessary for their personal safety and that of the passengers. They would operate under strict supervision of police who would ensure compliance on the part of both the provider of transport services and the passengers.

The fear remains that any general removal of the lockdowns would make it impossible to monitor, track or control in India enters massively into the third stage of the pandemic. The ability to remain in control cannot be lost sight of by the authorities and for that the ability to track and monitor the impact of the mobility relaxations and take corrective actions holds the key. The protocol presented above addresses this issue. The catalyst required is a sterile transport system which is fully tracked to reduce the danger associated with lifting the crippling lockdowns. As a matter of abundant caution, practical approach would be to open priority sector industries and businesses. The relaxations can be progressively increased.

Amitabh Kundu is distinguished fellow, Research and Information System for Developing Countries; Booby John is managing director, Æquitas Consulting Pvt. Ltd; and H.S. Sidhu is a business consultant